symphony of a big city, poster by stenberg brothers, 1928

who

Vladimir and Georgii Sternberg

russian avant-garde soviet artists and designers

best known for designing film posters for Sergei Eisenstein 's movies, Dziga Vertov 's documentaries

what

poster for 1927 german silent film

georgii died an untimely death in 1933 when he was only 33

untimely death in a motorcycle crash. since his death occurred around the time that stalin came into power, vladimir considered it to be the work of the secret police, since independent art was being attacked under stalin’s rule.

stenberg brothers' poster was meant for the 1928 moscow debut

how

where

actual film based in berlin

when

stenberg brothers' poster was inspired by umbo's (otto umbehr) photomontage

umbo

camera assistant for the film

other publicity for the film

umbo's photomontage released in 1925

Georgii Augustovich Stenberg and Vladimir Augustovich Stenberg - Symphony of a Big City Poster -1928

z

formal analysis

what do i see

A man with pens replacing his limbs. Camera replacing his eyes. Typewriter for body. Seems to portray a reporter.

There is a large building behind. Portrays a bustling metropolis. Utopia.

Colours are red and yellow. What does it remind you of?

soviet union

communism

the settings seem exaggerated to look better than it probably does

is the man depicted really a reporter

was he a reliable guy?

Likewise to Stenberg brothers, photomontage is of a man with objects replacing his body parts

1928

stenberg brothers were russian

the film

Originally released in 1927, Berlin, Symphony for a Big City was directed by the German filmmaker Walter Ruttmann. It was among the first feature-length films whose primary subject was not a person, but a place. The film narrative relies on the rhythm and structure of following the life of Berlin’s streets for a single day.

many of the most striking scenes in the film avoid the intrusion of people altogether, concentrating instead on the operation of mechanical devices (notably trains and factory machines)—even when those people must be there in some sense for the mechanisms to operate at all.

One of the most remarkable of such scenes takes place as the climax of Act I of the film. It’s staged in a factory that produces light bulbs. We see the whirling mechanisms of the machines, the molten glass being poured into the molds, the emission of the blown glass bulbs—all without a single discernible human presence. Barrett suggests that some critics saw this as the erasure of human labor and the fetishization of the machine. More ominously still, certain critics read this scene as a prefiguration of the Nazi ethos—Ruttmann would go on to assist Leni Riefenstahl in the notorious Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1935).


other scenes—notably one where Ruttmann juxtaposes a phalanx of men heading to work in a factory with cattle presumably being marched to slaughter—may be read as hewing closer to a Marxist critique of the abuses of capitalism and the denigration of workers alienated from their labor.

ruttmann's involvement with the Riefenstahl and the Nazi regime was not known at that time

soviet union and weimar germany

soviet union - communism

weimar germany

comparison with other works used for publicity

The picture of the man used is the same

egon erwin kisch

unsure how stenberg brothers became familiar with the photomontage

still, he had his views. he was a communist

one of the most important photographers of Bauhaus and modernism

the raging reporter

Austrian and Czechoslovak writer and journalist

known for opposition to adolf hitler's nazi regime

not applicable to this time, however, as hitler rose to power in 1933

was part of the austrian army in ww1 which radicalised him

became a member of the austrian communist party in 1919 and remained a communist after

was used in umbo's photomontage because he was one of the most outstanding journalists in the twentieth century

Der Rasende Reporter in 1924, followed by accounts of trips to the Soviet Union (1926), the United States of America (1929) and China (1933)—'all written from the Communist point of view, but sparkling with wit and colour'—established his reputation as the most significant and successful writer of reportage in German

constructivism and dadaism

egon erwin kisch on the poster

a communist reporter living in germany

reputation of most significant and successful writer of reportage in germany

replaced body parts for new technolgy.

does the type of technology used mean anything

colours

red and yellow

soviet colours

was there a point of this?

not really; the film was set in berlin, which has nothing to do with soviet union

democratic

umbo probably depicted him in the photomontage because of this

stenberg brothers continued using him in the poster as he normally reported from a communist pov

used to show that they are up to date?

poster released by stenberg brothers for moscow debut of the film

1927

film release in berlin

1925

photomontage for film publicity released by umbo

founding members of the Society of Young Artists known as obmokhu, and contributed to the group's first exhibition in Moscow in May 1919, and subsequent exhibitions in 1920, 1921 and 1923

Stenberg brothers were members of the Institute of Artistic Culture (INKhUK), a Constructivist group which included Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Lyubov Popova, Medunetskii and others. 1922

a striking example of the aesthetic shift that took place in the 1920s and early 1930s in the graphic arts. No longer reliant on realism in illustration, designers throughout Europe embraced the experiments of the avant-garde, maximizing the technological advancements in printing and photography, and exploiting collage to create an innovative graphic style.

Photomontage—the process of creating a collage from photographic elements—had become popular in Russia by the early 1920s, but the technology was not yet available to reproduce these black-and-white images in the quantities required for mass-advertising. The Stenbergs invented a projection device that could enlarge, reduce, distort, and manipulate images.

well aware of the challenges of producing a poster that would be noticed. Unlike their contemporaries, who used black type on white backgrounds, they frequently chose a black background with sans-serif lettering in vivid colors. Against the dark, bold red, yellow, and white, and the black-and-white gradient, the poster for Berlin: Symphony for a Big City is cinematic in its own right.

reason for dark, bold red, yellow, and white?

does it relate back to communism?

groundbreaking movement in art, design, and architecture that began in Russia in 1913, but really rose to prominence after the Russian Revolution of 1917

Movements like Dada, Realism, Anarchism, and Constructivism are said to be the initial drivers behind social change. This was meant to be offensive to the snobbish elite of the society.

nearly all of their posters were illustrated. Technological limitations of the time meant that collaged images could not be reproduced to a high standard, so the brothers developed a prototype overhead projector, allowing them to project and distort images, portraits and film stills on to their posters which they then illustrated by hand

1930s

stalin put an end to avant garde art

was this effective?

does the design movement make the work effective

was he a socialist?

propaganda

For a time, the avant-garde was tolerated and even encouraged by the new communist government: the Russian artist Naum Gabo, who emigrated to Germany in 1922, recalled that "at the beginning we were all working for the Government." To some extent, this freedom reflected the lack of attention which the Central Committee - the USSR's new ruling body - was paying to cultural matters while it was struggling with the Russian Civil War of 1917-22. As early as 1922 - the year that the war ended, and that Joseph Stalin began to consolidate his control over the USSR - the State was already beginning to clamp down on freedom of creative expression; when Stalin rose to full power upon Lenin's death in 1924, a more drastic shift in culture followed. Unlike most movements in art history, which tended to grow organically out of a socio-historical moment, Socialist Realism was imposed from above through informal pressure from the early 1920s onwards, and as state policy from 1934.

was the poster effective because of this?

a summary

describing the poster

how where and by whom it was designed by affected the design

how the designer meant for the design to be viewed

how the design should be viewed

why was it like this?

how events around the designer affected the design

effective design in which